Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

The new project to revamp the Mercat de l’Abaceria involves changes the plans initially presented, responding to demands from commercial organisations and local residents’ associations for more community space in the dense Vila de Gràcia neighbourhood.

The renovation proposal for the Mercat de l’Abaceria includes a third floor below ground of 3,500 square metres, with storage facilities for organisations and local associations. The final version of the market will therefore have a built surface area of 13,164 square metres.

The new design will help gain 1,120 square metres of outdoor space, an area equivalent to Plaça de John Lennon, with public space for use by local people.

The new facility will be more open and feature more glass, enabling indoor stalls to interact with the street, with new operators to complement the range of fresh produce at the market, such as a cooperative economy space and self-service store.

The facility will also get the service and logistics capacity that most city markets now have, to facilitate the various types of activity there.

The 56 stallholders from the Mercat de l’Abaceria have been operating in a provisional marquee in Passeig de Sant Joan, between C/ Indústria and C/ Sant Antoni Maria Claret, since 11 July 2018. Work on the new market is expected to get under way between the end of 2021 and the start of 2022.

What will the new market have?

The remodelling project is for a market on the ground floor, with a mezzanine floor and three underground floors:

• Mezzanine floor (1,136 m²), at two levels:
  • Managerial office, vendors’ association office, open classroom (multi-purpose room) and technical rooms
• Ground floor:
  • Food market: 43 indoor establishments selling food and 14 outside selling non-foodstuffs (2,500 m²)
  • New commercial space for producer cooperatives (300 m²), with an exterior and interior façade for the food market to guarantee opening at times which differ from the market’s hours
  • Special stalls with a shop format: total floor space of 300 m², with shops 30 m long and a special space of 20 m² for flowers
• Floor -1:
  • New establishment with a self-service format (1,500 m² with a minimum of 750 m² for commercial space and the rest for logistics)
  • Storage, cold rooms and waste areas (423 m²)
• Floor -2:
  • Storage and cold rooms (1,060 m²)
  • Customer car parking with 50 spaces. Only to open during market opening hours
• Space with double height (in parallel to floors -1 and -2):
  • Loading/unloading space with double height clearance reserved for industrial vehicles (1,050m²)
• Floor -3 (3,500 m² approx.):
  • Storage and space for organisations and local associations